Instructions on funding applications for grand projects in 2025

16/12/2024

‘Grand projects’ are undertaken by a group comprising at least four researchers with a joint, coherent research task. A grand project must be characterised by excellence in the various parts of the application, and as a whole. The research task must be well thought-out, from the overarching problem to practical execution. A grand project addresses a challenging task, and the group must be carefully composed for the purpose.

One requirement for obtaining funding for grand projects is an advanced research environment or advanced research network, with a sound base in the international research community, to be in place. Grand projects serve to create collaborations across subject and institutional boundaries and national borders, and to enable researchers to form a group that is active in the long term. Grand projects are characterised by a strong international element in the research group.

Overview:

• Eligible applicants: A group of at least four researchers, who may also seek funding for postdoctoral researchers and doctoral students within the framework of the grand project.
• Project period: Four or five years.
• Amount of grant:  A maximum of SEK 5 million a year, for a total of SEK 25million.
• Grant administrator:  Södertörn University.
• System: Applications are submitted in the Foundation’s application system.

Key dates

• The call for applications opens on Monday 16 December 2024 at 9:00 am.
• Applications must be submitted not later than on Friday 31 January 2025 at 3:00 pm.
• Notification of whether applications have been approved to proceed to assessment by external experts and subsequent interview will be sent in May 2025.
• The date for interviews will be announced in May 2025
• Interviews with research groups will take place in September 2025
• Decisions will be announced to the project leaders directly in mid-October 2025 and published on the Foundations website a week later.

Instruction and Conditions

A. General requirements

1. Language: Applications must be in English. Applications partially in Swedish or incomplete will not be considered.
2. Grant Period: Funding will start from 1 January 2026.
3. Required Files: Upload project descriptions, references, and CVs as separate PDFs; no other appendices are allowed.
4. Approval: The  project managers must anchor their application with the Grant Administrator (Södertörn University) before applying for funding. For instructions on the university’s internal process, see the checklist on their staff web.  The approval from the Grant administrator is confirmed through digital signatures or a signed form submitted together with the application in the system.
5. Responsibilities: The project manager is also the contact person for the project vis-à-vis the Foundation and the grant administrator when the application is generated, during the assessment period and after a funding decision has been made.
6. Multiple Funders: If applying for additional funding elsewhere, this must be declared in the application. The Foundation does not normally approve co-funding of research projects with another research funder.
7. Grant Administrator: All projects must be based at Södertörn University, which acts as the grant administrator.
8. Data Management Plan:   A data management plan  is required for funded projects, though it need not be submitted in the application. It must be confirmed that a plan will be in place before project commencement. See the Swedish Research Council’s website for examples of how to configure central parts of a data management plan.
9. Ethical Approval: An ethical review must be carried out and approved before the research begins. An account of ethical considerations regarding the proposed project must be given in a special space on the application. The applicant should comment on, and explain the reasons, why the project entails no ethical problems if this is the case or, if it requires certain ethical issues to be considered, whether it is to be assessed by the Swedish Ethical Review Authority or has already obtained ethical approval.
10. International Research: Projects conducted outside Sweden must meet both Swedish and local legal requirements. If any part of the research is to be conducted outside Sweden, the project manager needs to find out whether the country concerned imposes requirements over and above those in relevant Swedish law. Any permits or approvals must be in place before the research begins.
11. The Foundation does not support research carried out abroad that would clearly not get a permit to be conducted in Sweden.
12. Open Access: Researchers must publish their results with open access.
13. Data Privacy: The Foundation collects and processes personal data as part of the application process. The project manager must ensure all participants are aware of the Foundation´s data privacy policy.
14. Information on grants awarded by the Foundation is submitted for publication in SweCRIS, a national database of grant-funded research.

B. Applicants: project manager and participants

1. Project Manager:
   • The project manager is responsible for ongoing project work and the contact person for the project vis-à-vis the Foundation and the grant administrator when the application is generated, during the assessment period and after a funding decision has been made. It is the project manager´s responsibility to secure the grant administrator’s support to the project plan, including foreign participants and all research to be conducted partly in countries other than Sweden.
   • The project manager must hold an appointment at Södertörn University throughout the project period.
2. Grant Administrator:
   • All projects must be based at Södertörn University, which acts as the grant administrator. It is the administrator for the grant concerned who decides on and is responsible for, where necessary, appointing foreign staff or paying for activities and services carried out in other countries.
   • Neither the project manager nor the participants need to be employed by the grant administrator at the time of application. During the project period, the project manager must be employed at Södertörn University, while the other participants must normally spend some time there.
3. Other participants
   • Grand projects must comprise at least four participants (including the project manager, excluding postdoctoral researchers and doctoral students).
   • Grand projects are characterised by a strong international element in the research group.
   • Grand projects may include researchers with doctorates, postdoctoral researchers and doctoral students.
   • If doctoral students are included in the grand project, they must be well supervised and given particularly good conditions for becoming integrated in the research environment.
   • A postdoctoral researcher who is recruited may not have a doctorate obtained more than three years previously (allowing the usual deduction of time on parental leave, sick leave, service in the Armed Forces and trade union or political office).
   • Researchers who are, at the time of application, included in the Baltic Sea and Eastern Europe Programme (professors and associate senior lecturers) funded by the Foundation may apply for funding, but not for their own personal salaries during any part of the project period.
   • There is no age limit for anyone applying for funding from the Foundation. For eligibility to receive salary in the grand project, the researcher may not be in full-time retirement during the project period.
4. Multiple proposals: Each year, participation in only one application for a research project by the Foundation is permitted, irrespective of whether the researcher applies as project manager or participant. See overview Which grants can be applied for.
5. The Foundation is complying with the Government’s request to ensure that contacts and collaborations with Russian and Belarusian state institutions cease immediately and no new ones are initiated. The Foundation will not fund research collaborations linked to the state in Russia or Belarus.

C. Budget and costs

1. Grant limit: The budget for a project may not exceed SEK 5 million a year. The budget may be allocated differently from year to year but may not, for a five-year project, exceed SEK 25 million altogether for the entire project period.
2. Eligible Costs : Salaries, overheads (including lönekostnadspålägg, LKP), premises, and operating costs (such as investigation costs, costs of conferences and travel) and costs for dissemination of results.
3. Assistants and technical staff may be included in the budget for ‘other costs’.
4. Restrictions:
   • The project manager’s working time in the project must comprise at least 20 per cent of a full-time annual position. This working time may be distributed differently from year to year. 
   • Costs of printing, language editing, translation, publication with open access etc. are included in the dissemination costs, additional funding may not be included in the application regarding these costs. Once a final report on the project has been submitted, publication funds may be applied for separately, in form of support: publication grants.
   • If a doctoral student participates in the project, the project funding may not be used as salary for teaching or other departmental functions performed by the student. Up to four years’ salary funding for a doctoral student, covering 100 per cent of a full-time annual position, may be applied for.
   • Funding for costs associated with a doctoral student’s public defence of a PhD thesis and supervision can be applied for. However, no funding is available for any costs for a doctoral student after the project period ends: these costs are the grant administrator’s responsibility.

D. Project period and monitoring

1. Project Duration: Four or five years, with an additional year for grant availability.
2. Mid-term Review: Projects are typically reviewed halfway through their duration. See further information on the mid-term review. In the event of substantial deviations from the operational plan and time schedule, the Foundation can decide to terminate the funding for the project. Other forms of monitoring of the project may also occur.
3. Final Report: A final report (financial and scientific) is due within four months of the project’s end. The scientific report will be published on the Foundation’s website.

E. Assessment Process

Applications for grand projects are reviewed by a specially appointed assessment panel comprising researchers with a broad composition in terms of subject specialization.

1. Multi-stage application assessment

Every panel member reviews the applications on the basis of the set criteria for assessment. At a panel meeting, a number of applications are selected for assessment by international experts (at least three per application), who submit written statements of opinion. The experts, appointed by the assessment panel, are academically qualified people with knowledge relevant to the application. The Foundation does not accept nominations of external experts from the applicants.

Based on the applications and experts’ written opinions, the assessment panel interviews a selection of the research groups who have applied for grand projects. After ranking the applications in order of priority, the panel then proposes to the Foundation’s Board which applications should be rejected and approved respectively.

After the Board has made its decision, the applicants are notified by email, and also receive the external experts’ statements. No reasons for the decisions are given. For every application that is approved, a contract for the project is signed by the project manager, the grant administrator’s authorized representative and the Foundation.

2. Assessment criteria

The criteria for assessing applications are:

• scientific excellence
• relevance of the research to the Baltic Sea Region and Eastern Europe
• innovativeness and originality
• the international standard of the research
• the research group’s composition and skills
• the feasibility of the grand project
• relevance to society.

Relevance to the Baltic Sea Region and Eastern Europe: Under the Statutes, the Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies funds research related to ‘the Baltic Sea Region and Eastern Europe’. The ‘Baltic Sea Region’ is the Baltic Sea itself and the surrounding areas. ‘Eastern Europe’ refers to post-communist Central, Southern and Eastern Europe (see further information on the Baltic Sea Region and Eastern Europe). The Foundation does not fund research relating exclusively to Sweden or Swedish conditions. However, support may be provided for research that concerns Sweden, or countries entirely outside the Baltic Sea Region and Eastern Europe in comparative studies when this is scientifically justified.

For the research to be judged highly relevant to the Baltic Sea Region and Eastern Europe, it must make a specific contribution to our knowledge of this area. Research within the area involving collaboration with researchers, research institutions and other stakeholders in the Baltic Sea Region and Eastern Europe is particularly relevant. Research with a more theoretical main question, in which the importance of the Baltic Sea Region or Eastern Europe is not explained in terms of the main question, or where the link to the region is indirect, is judged less relevant.

Relevance to Society:  The relevance of the research to society, where it can be applied, is another key criterion in the assessment of a funding application. The findings from such research may bring practical benefits to the communities or societies under investigation and/or help to solve current problems there. Alternatively, the results may provide a background theoretical or empirical explanation for these problems.

F. Application Submission

 1. Information

• System: Applications are submitted through the Foundation’s application system (Apply). All project managers must create an account to submit.
• Signatures: The project manager and grant administrator must digitally sign the application, confirming compliance with the Foundation’s conditions.
• Deadline: 31 January 2024 at 15.00 CEST
• Post-Submission Edits: Once submitted, applications cannot be modified by the applicant; contact the Foundation’s secretariat if changes are needed.

2. Application form

Summary 

The summary may be up to 1,500 characters, including spaces, in length. It must describe and justify the research task, and report on its theoretical, methodological and empirical basis. The summary must be written in a way that people with other research specialisations, too, can understand. If the application is approved, the summary of the project is published in unedited form on the Foundation’s website.

Project description

The project description for a grand project must comprise a maximum of 15 pages of text (Times New Roman 12 points, line spacing 1.5 and normal margins).

The project description must give a clear account of:

• purpose and research question
• contribution(s) to new knowledge and the international research frontline
• contribution(s) to innovativeness and originality
• theory and method
• materials
• time schedule and implementation
• assessment of potential risks, limitations and challenges, and strategies for managing them
• research relevance to the Baltic Sea Region and Eastern Europe, and usefulness of the project for overall knowledge building in the area
• relevance to society
• project organisation and the researchers’ functions and responsibilities in the project
• how doctoral students, if any, are to be supervised and given particularly good prospects of becoming integrated in the research environment
• collaboration with guest researchers, if any, and any other research contacts in the Baltic Sea Region and Eastern Europe, and also both in Sweden and internationally
• how the research environment of the grand project is intended to continue after the end of the project period
• a plan for how both information about the project and the research results are to be communicated, both within the discipline and in society at large.

References

References are listed in a separate file, and complete references must be given for the sources referred to in the project description. The references may not exceed five pages in length. They must relate to the academic literature that is cited in the project description, and not to letters of recommendation or other testimonials, for example.

CVs

CVs may not exceed two pages in length per participant. Every CV must contain the following information: date of doctorate; employment position; the participant’s maximum five most important academic publications, preferably with reference to the proposed project; previous external research grants; project management and supervision experience; international research stays; and language skills relevant to the project.

Project costs 

Here, a budget in SEK for the whole project period must be provided. All the research participants must be named in the budget.

1. Direct Costs:
   • Project costs are classified as direct and indirect. Direct costs comprise (full-time, monthly) salaries, including payroll overhead in the form of social security contributions (lönekostnadspålägg, LKP), for project participants; costs of premises; costs of investigations; travel and conferences; and other costs. LKP is a general mark-up on total salary costs.
   • Non-Grant-Funded Staff: For project participants whose salaries will not be funded by grants from the Foundation, SEK 0 and the participants’ employment level should be specified.
   • Non-Employed Staff at Application Date: Salaries and LKP should be agreed upon with the authorised representative (usually the department head).
   • Non-Research Staff: Include assistants and technical staff in “other costs”. While naming them isn’t required at the application stage, their duties and roles must be described in the budget commentary.
2. Indirect Costs (Overheads):
   • Apply the department’s stated percentage for indirect costs or an agreed rate with the authorised representative. This rate is calculated on total payroll costs, including LKP, and automatically computed in the system.
3. Additional considerations:
   • Dissemination of Results: A standard grant of SEK 200,000 is automatically added for costs related to publishing, language editing, translation, and open-access publications.
   • Ethical Review Costs: May be included under “other costs.”

Budget commentary

Please note that all direct costs, and also the resource requirements for non-research staff and costs of travel and material collection, must be specified and justified in detail in the space for ‘Budget commentary’. This means, first, that a realistic calculation of individual costs must be provided, and they must be stated precisely at a level of detail that enables assessment of how reasonable they are in relation to the purpose of the project. Second, it means that the costs must be justified, and arguments for them presented, in terms of the purpose and implementation of the individual project. Unspecified or unjustified costs are not approved.

Note that the commentary, too, must be written in English and that it is obligatory. The budget commentary may be up to 4,000 characters, including spaces, in length.

Signatures

The application must be signed by the project manager and the grant administrator’s authorised representative, who is usually the head of the department (prefekt) where the project is intended to be based. The Foundation processes signed applications only.

The application is digitally signed with BankID in the Foundation’s application system Apply. If BankID is not available a special signature form is downloaded from the application system.

The project manager’s signature represents confirmation that:

• the information in the application is correct and in line with the Foundation’s instructions
• necessary permits and approvals, for example regarding ethical review, are in place by the start of the project
• a data management plan will be in place when the project starts, and this plan will be maintained (see also A.8)
• the project manager will comply with all the conditions applying to the grant.

The grant administrator’s signature represents confirmation that:

• the research, appointment and equipment described, including employment positions, remuneration and assignments for researchers who are not, at the application date, employed by the grant administrator can be accommodated at the department during the period and on the scale specified in the application
• the applicant will be employed by the grant administrator for the period to which the application relates
• the grant administrator approves the cost calculation in the application
• the research carried out in the project will be conducted in accordance with Swedish legislation
• a data management plan will be in place by the project start and the plan will be maintained (see also A.8)
• the grant administrator will comply with all the conditions applying to the grant.

The parties must have discussed the above points before the project manager and the grant administrator’s representative approve and sign the application.